Configurable feed for display with a web page

ABSTRACT

A method of retrieving and displaying relevant content as part of a configurable feed in association with a web page hosted at a host server associated with a publisher includes: selecting a plurality of different content extensions having different content extension types to be displayed in association with the web page, wherein the web page is located at a particular URL; analyzing the web page for content to determine information about the web page; receiving a request for the URL of the web page; and based on the request and the analysis, selecting a plurality of content extension content corresponding respectively to the plurality of different content extensions and for display in a browser with the web page. The selection of the plurality of different content extensions may be made at least in part by the publisher, and the selection of the content extension content may be made at least in part by a third party content feed entity different from the publisher.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e)to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/586,104, filed on Nov. 14,2017, and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/578,987, filedon Oct. 30, 2017, the contents of each of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure is directed toward a system and method fordelivering relevant content to users in an online environment.

Many online publishers use services provided by third party content feedcompanies, to display a list of links, often in the form of images, atthe bottom of the publishers' articles. These feeds typically includelinks to other websites or articles that are believed to be of interestto the reader, and may include links to additional articles or web pagesof the publisher itself. In addition, many online publishers offer, aspart of their own websites, content, as well as content extensions whichinclude the ability for users to comment, react to (e.g., “like”), andshare content from the publishers' own website, in a manner set by thepublisher. Companies like Facebook include feeds on their platform,which may display various advertising content, and which may displaypictures and links to articles, along with content extensions, such ascomments, reactions, and sharing.

However, Facebook is a closed, proprietary system, that limits theability of users, publishers, and advertisers to control the method ofdisplay and the content and content extensions selected for display.Furthermore, neither the publishers, nor the third party content feedcompanies currently allow for a publisher-customized user experience forthe feeds that appear at the bottom of various Web articles.

SUMMARY

Certain exemplary embodiments include a method of retrieving anddisplaying relevant content as part of a configurable feed inassociation with a web page hosted at a host server associated with apublisher. The method may include selecting a plurality of differentcontent extensions having different content extension types to bedisplayed in association with the web page, wherein the web page islocated at a particular URL, analyzing the web page for content todetermine information about the web page, receiving a request for theURL of the web page, and based on the request and the analysis,selecting a plurality of content extension content correspondingrespectively to the plurality of different content extensions and fordisplay in a browser with the web page. The selection of the pluralityof different content extensions is made at least in part by thepublisher, and the selection of the content extension content is made atleast in part by a third party content feed entity different from thepublisher.

Certain exemplary embodiments include a method of retrieving anddisplaying links to a plurality of destination feed locations along withcontent extensions associated with those destination feed locations aspart of a configurable feed displayed within a web page hosted at a hostserver associated with a publisher. The method may include selectingfrom a plurality of content extensions having different contentextension types, at least a first content extension to be displayed inthe web page next to a first link to a first destination feed location.The method may further include selecting from the plurality of contentextensions, at least a second content extension to be displayed in theweb page next to a second link to a second destination feed location.The second content extension may have a different content extension typefrom the first content extension. The method may additionally includeanalyzing the web page for content to determine information about theweb page, and include receiving a request for the web page and based onthe selections, the request, and the analysis, selecting first andsecond content extension content corresponding respectively to the firstand second different content extensions and for display with the webpage. The first content extension may be a reconfigured version of afirst corresponding content extension included at the first destinationfeed location, and the second content extension may be a reconfiguredversion of a second corresponding content extension included at thesecond destination feed location.

Certain exemplary embodiments include a method of retrieving anddisplaying links to a plurality of destination feed locations along withcontent extensions associated with those destination feed locations aspart of a configurable feed displayed within a web page hosted at a hostserver associated with a publisher. The method may include selectingfrom a plurality of content extensions having different contentextension types, at least a first content extension to be displayed inthe web page next to a first link to a first destination feed location,the first content extension having a first content extension type, andselecting from the plurality of content extensions, at least a secondcontent extension to be displayed in the web page next to a second linkto a second destination feed location, the second content extensionhaving a second content extension type. The method may further includeanalyzing the web page for content to determine information about theweb page, and may include receiving a request for the web page, andbased on the selections, the request, and the analysis, selecting firstand second content extension content corresponding respectively to thefirst and second content extensions and for display with the web page.The first content extension may include first content derived from afirst corresponding content extension included at the first destinationfeed location, and the second content extension may include secondcontent derived from a second corresponding content extension includedat the second destination feed location.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system and method for communicating variousinformation in a network, according to certain embodiments;

FIG. 2A depicts an example of part of a publisher profile, according tocertain example embodiments;

FIG. 2B depicts another example of part of a publisher profile,according to certain example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of a configurable feed including destinationURL links and content extensions, according to certain exampleembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure will now be described more fully with referenceto the accompanying drawings, in which various embodiments are shown.The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms andshould not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forthherein.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third etc.may be used herein to describe various elements, systems, components,and/or steps, these elements, systems, components, and/or steps shouldnot be limited by these terms. Unless the context indicates otherwise,these terms are only used to distinguish one element, system, component,and/or step from another element, component, system, and/or step, forexample as a naming convention. Thus, a first element, system,component, and/or step discussed below in one section of thespecification could be termed a second element, system, component,and/or step in another section of the specification or in the claimswithout departing from the teachings of the present disclosure. Inaddition, in certain cases, even if a term is not described using“first,” “second,” etc., in the specification, it may still be referredto as “first” or “second” in a claim in order to distinguish differentclaimed elements from each other.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being“connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directlyconnected or coupled to or on the other element or intervening elementsmay be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being“directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, or in“direct communication” with another element, there are no interveningelements present. Other words used to describe the relationship betweenelements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus“directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.).

Terms such as “same,” or “equal to,” as used herein when referring tocertain features do not necessarily mean exactly identical, but areintended to encompass nearly identical features, within acceptablevariations that may occur, for example, due to minor time delays,functionality variations, or other minor variations. The term“substantially” may be used herein to reflect this meaning.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It willbe further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and/orthe present application, and will not be interpreted in an idealized oroverly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

As is traditional in the field of the disclosed technology, features andembodiments are described, and illustrated in the drawings in terms offunctional blocks, units, and/or modules representing computers, such asservers and clients. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that theseblocks, units, and/or modules (e.g., servers and clients) may beimplemented by computers that include microprocessors, memory,input/output devices, networking hardware and software, and similarcomputer technology, and may be programmed using software (e.g.,computer programs and code) to perform various functions discussedherein and may optionally be driven by firmware in addition to software.

Among other things, the present disclosure describes a unified feed,that includes different components like videos, comments, polling, andreactions, but pulls these different components from differentsources/contributors/applications to unify the results across differentplatforms. In addition, the present disclosure describes allowing usersto login to the feed service, to better customize the user feedexperience, across various publishers.

Each publisher, such as the New York Times, Newsweek, etc., can sign upwith a third party content feed company, who provides a framework, orlayout for a content feed that will appear at the bottom of thepublisher's web pages (e.g., at the bottom of articles associated with aURL). For example, as part of the web page, the publisher can include apiece of code, such as Javascript, that renders a feed provided by athird party content feed company.

Each URL that includes the Javascript will communicate with the thirdparty content feed company's system (e.g., server system), which thenkeeps a record of the URL, and includes software that analyzes the URLfor its content, such as text, headers, and images, in order todetermine the context of the page, topics associated with the page, andother relevant information. The content feed associated with the URLwill then depend in part on this analysis, by matching possible contentfor the feed to the information collected about the content of the URL.Software and algorithms for selecting content feed content (e.g.,selecting a particular destination URL) based on analysis of a web pageat a URL is known in the art, and includes, for example, hybridrecommender algorithms combining or testing between Content Based, UserPersonalization, Opinion Based, Collaborative filtering, Multi-criteria,and Trend Based algorithms.

The content feed layout will be set in part by the third party feedcompany, and in part by the publisher, for example, based on apublisher's preferences. In addition, the layout may be determined basedon a user accessing the publisher's website.

For example, different items can appear in the content feed, such aslinks to videos (or videos themselves), links to further articles (e.g.,on the same publisher's or on other publishers' websites, or other thirdparty websites), advertisements, voting polls, surveys, comments,reactions, or sharing links. In some examples, the third party feedcompany can pull the content, as well as the application software forthese components from external sites. For example, in some embodiments,URLs that may appear in the content feed are catalogued by the thirdparty content feed company's system, after being analyzed for content,structure, headlines, etc., and ranked based on the analysis. Inaddition, the URLs may be analyzed for certain Javascript or similarcode (e.g., widgets, or plugins), such as comment widgets, poll widgets,reaction widgets, etc. Results of the analysis (e.g., comments, polls,and reactions discovered based on the discovered widgets) may be storedin the third party content feed company's system. For example, certaincomments (e.g., the most popular comment, or the top comment) may bestored along with the URL on the third party content feed company'sserver; current poll results may be retrieved and stored along with theURL on the third party content feed company's server; reactioninformation may be retrieved and stored with the URL on the third partycontent feed company's server, etc. In some embodiments, rather thananalyzing the URLs to determine content extensions such as comments,reactions, and polls, the provider of the URLs (e.g., publisher websiteitself) can be integrated with the third party content feed company'scontent feed, for example, using various APIs, Javascript, or othercode, to automatically integrate the content extensions created by thepublisher with the third party content feed company's feed.

In some embodiments, content extension content that is discovered andassociated with a particular URL can appear in the content feed next tothe URL. For example, the content feed can be configured so that belowor next to an image link to a URL (e.g., a publisher's article), certaincontent extension data are displayed, such as one or more comments,reaction icons, a poll, etc. This enhances the viewer's experience andcan assist the viewer in selecting which links from the content feed toselect. In addition, by aggregating the content extensions along withthe links to the articles in the content feed, the viewer has a betteridea of the content, quality, and relevance of the articles, and canhave a better idea of which articles to select and not select. This hasthe effect of controlling, reducing, and better targeting networktraffic, thereby improving network communications.

In some embodiments, in addition to users viewing content extensions ina content feed, the users can interact with the content extensions(e.g., can add comments, select a reaction, or take a poll) from thecontent feed, and can thus add his/her input to the content extensions.To accomplish this, certain extensions can be integrated between thethird party content feed company's system and the systems of thepublishers who offer the content and content extensions. Using reactionsas an example, in some embodiments, the third party content feed companycan provide a reaction system and interface by placing a Javascript codeon each URL catalogued to be used in the content feed, that thepublisher web page uses to link to the third party content feedcompany's reaction storage. At the same time, the third party contentfeed company can have its own app in its content feed itself that alsocommunicates with the reaction storage. The app is integrated with theJavascript code, so that reactions made on the publisher's web pageitself, as well as reactions made in the third party content feedcompany's content feed, can be logged in the third party content feedcompany's reaction storage and associated with the web page.

In this manner, the content feed system and method described hereinprovides an open feed, where different companies and publishers can usethe feed service under a single uniform platform. When content extensioninformation (e.g., comments, reactions, etc.) is updated at thepublisher website, it can be automatically updated at the third partycontent feed company, and vice versa. This decreases the need for usersto navigate to the particular publisher's website to view and update thecontent extension content. In certain embodiments, a particularmonetization method can be used to ensure that traffic lost to differentpages on the publisher's website is accounted for. That said, overallnetwork traffic can be reduced to improve network performance.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the content included in afeed as content extensions can be received from one of a variety ofsources that provide the content extensions for a particular web page.For example, the publisher as well as a social media site, such asFacebook, may include content extensions connected to a particular URL,and the content extension content included in the content feed mayinclude information received from both sources. In this manner, for eachitem in the content feed (e.g., comments, reactions, polling, etc.), theinformation associated with that item may be pulled from differentInternet locations, thereby creating a unified service that supplies thedifferent items in a single customizable platform.

In some embodiments, the content extensions associated with a particularURL can be selected for display in a browser as part of the feed forthat URL based on various factors, such as user data, time of day,historical data about the content extension, etc. The customization andaggregation of the content feed not only improves the desired look,feel, and relevance of information for each user, but as discussedpreviously, it also improves network traffic and therefore improves theunderlying technology involved in communicating and displaying the feed.

In some embodiments, the third party feed company, also referred to asthe feed producer, may have a server system that can include, on ahardware computer-readable medium, data (e.g., in the form of adatabase, for example) and program code configured to store a templatethat indicates a framework and/or layout for a content feed. The programcode may additionally store various algorithms for determining whichcontent extensions and content to include for each URL access. Thesealgorithms may be based in part on the feed producer's own rules andparameters, publisher preferences regarding what components to beincluded in the content feed, the content of the URL itself, and/or userinformation. Some parameters used for selecting which content to includein a content feed include whether to display headers and logos, whetherto include video (whether the publisher's own video or syndicatedvideo), and an amount of sponsored content in the feed versus the amountof internal articles (e.g., non-sponsored content) in the feed.

Algorithms used to select which content is displayed in each particularcontent extension or in each suggested link in the feed include, forexample, momentum or trending information, such as a trending rank, ahighest click-through rate in a given time period, or most increased(e.g., by percentage or absolute numerical count) click-through rate ina particular time period compared to a previous time period. In oneembodiment, each component of the feed can be either an advertisement(e.g., which may directly result in revenue to the publisher), orcontent or user engagement link (e.g., which may result in indirectrevenue and which may have an associated revenue per page view, or“RPM”). In certain embodiments, the publisher can login to the feedproducer's service in order to customize its feed for particularwebsites. One exemplary customization allows the publisher to select arange between all advertisements, and all content/user engagement. Otheradditional, or alternative, customizations by the publisher includeselecting which types of content extensions to include in its feedassociated with its websites, editing the layout of the feed, such asnumber of columns, a header section, etc., and/or grouping components ofthe feed based on tag or category.

Various third party application (“app”) developers can be associatedwith the feed producer's service. For example, different app developersthat produce comment apps, polling apps, video player apps, reactionapps, or sharing apps may have web-accessible apps that can be calledfrom the feed producer's servers, in order to provide the appropriateservices. As such, if it is determined that content extensions ofcomments and reactions are to be included in a feed along with a video,the respective apps for the comments, reactions, and video may beaccessed by the feed producer's server in order to integrate the appsinto the feed producer's feed for a particular URL.

In some embodiments, no third party Javascript (third party in relationto the feed producer) is used for implementing the components of thefeed. One or more APIs can be used by each component of a video feed toaccess the data to be retrieved for the component, and/or Javascriptcode produced by the feed producer can be included in certain URLs. Forgreater uniformity, these APIs and/or Javascript can be created andcontrolled by the feed producer.

II. Cross-Platform User Experience

In some embodiments, each user must log in to interact with the variouscontent extensions. For example, a user who wishes to comment on contentby using a comments content extension would be asked to log in prior tomaking comments. The user can use a login name of the publisher, or of asocial media site (e.g., Facebook), as his/her login, in which case thatlogin name is associated with that user and can be shared using an API.In this way, the user can login one time, and then so long as the userstays logged in, for any websites that the user visits that include thefeed producer's content feed, the user will no longer need to log in,and information selected by the user can be stored in connection withthe same user.

This allows for a better user experience across various publishers'websites. User's can be asked upon login whether they would like toremain logged in to the feed producer's service (e.g., using a radiobutton or other GUI selection mechanism). Alternatively, no such optionwould be presented to the user, and the user can remain logged in, forexample, as long as the user remains logged in to the publisher websiteor social media site used to login, or for a certain period of timeafter which an auto-log out occurs.

This login process additionally improves and speeds up a user's accessto relevant data across various websites and platforms, so thatregardless of what web site is being visited, the user will be presentedwith the most relevant content in the feeds at the bottom of Webarticles. Thus, this has the technical improvement of allowing forproviding the user with faster and more relevant access to varioussites, for example, related to online shopping, political activism,medical needs, and a host of other important types of information, thusimproving the technology of e-commerce itself.

FIG. 1 shows examples of communication between a client, publisher, feedproducer, and destination feed locations, as well as an example of thetype of content and content extensions that may be included in aretrieved web page.

The client device 110 may be, for example, an end user device such as amobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. The client device 110may include an application such as a web browser that allows users toaccess the Internet. Any known browser suitable for the device beingused can be implemented (e.g., Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).

The publisher host server 120 may be, for example, one or more servercomputers connected to the Internet that contain a particularpublisher's web site—e.g., for a news organization, it may include allof the news organization's articles, videos, and interactiveapplications, as well as other information that the news organizationmakes available to the public. The client device 110 and publisher hostserver 120 may communicate via one or more known communication media,such as wireless/cellular, land-based coaxial cable, fiber optics,satellite, etc.

The feed entity server 130 may be one or more server computers connectedto the Internet that run computer program code for aggregatinginformation to be displayed in a feed that will be associated with anddisplayed with a publisher's web page. The feed entity server 130 may beoperated by a feed producer different from the publisher.

The destination feed locations, represented by destination URLs (UniformResource Locators) 1-4 refer to respective locations, such as filelocations within different server computers 141-144 connected to theInternet, and link to content stored on those server computers 141-144.Some of the destination URLs, though different from each other, mayrefer to content located at the same server computer. Nonetheless, eachdestination URL may be stored at the feed entity server 130 forselection for content feed content. In some embodiments, differentdestination URLs may be included in or referenced by one or morepublisher profiles stored at the feed entity server 130, to be retrievedand used in different feeds. The feed entity server 130 may then selectwhich destination URLs to use, as well as which content extensions touse in the content feed based on the publisher profile, among otherthings.

The servers described herein for storing content associated withdifferent URLs may also include cache servers.

As used herein, a “feed” refers to a set of additional informationdisplayed in association with a particular web page, the set ofadditional information including references to further content that maybe selected by the viewer of the web page.

As an example data flow, a user at a client device 110 may make a URLrequest, for example, by entering the URL in a web browser, or byclicking a link on an existing web page. The URL request is sent to thepublisher host server 120, and as a result, in one embodiment, HTMLrepresenting a web page, or a video, or other content (collectivelyreferred to herein as primary content) stored at a location referencedby the URL is returned to the client device 110. In association with theprimary content returned to the client device 110, and in oneembodiment, included in the HTML returned to the client device 110 iscode such as Javascript, that when executed by a browser at the clientdevice 110 makes a call to feed entity server 130. The feed entityserver 130 receives this call, also referred to as a request for feedcontent, and based on the publisher profile, user profile, database ofstored destination URLs, various algorithms, and other information,selects both destination URL content and content extensions to beincluded in the feed to be displayed with the primary content requestedby the client device 110. The destination URL content and contentextension information is then sent to the client device 110 to beincluded for display in the client device 110 browser along with theprimary content.

More specifically, as one example, if a user makes a request to retrievea particular article (primary content) from nytimes.com (e.g.,www.nytimes.com/article_1), the HTML for that article may includeJavascript configured to access the feed entity server 130 to obtaindestination URL content for the content feed as well as and contentextension content for content extensions for the content feed. Thedestination URL content may include, for example, a headline from thedestination feed location, one or more pictures from the destinationfeed location, and/or other summary information from the destinationfeed location. Upon receiving a call for destination URL content, thefeed entity server 130 may access the publisher profile, as well asoptionally a user profile, to determine the structure for the contentfeed to be displayed with the primary content.

As one example, the table shown in FIG. 2A depicts one set ofinformation that can be stored in a publisher's profile. In thisexample, each publisher (Newsweek.com is shown as one example) canselect different destination URLs whose content is to appear in the feed(e.g., abc.com, def.com, xyz.com, and jkl.com), and for each destinationURL, can determine which types of content extensions (e.g., comments,reactions, or all content extensions found in the destination URL)should be displayed in the feed alongside a link to a web page or sourcelocation of the destination URL. However, this is only one example. Inother embodiments, the publisher can select, for different content typesfor display in the feed, which content extensions to display for eachcontent type, as shown in FIG. 2B. The publisher can also select whichcontent types to show in the feed, and can select, for example, thenumber of links in the feed (e.g., 9), how many of them should be for adestination URL for content having a first content type (e.g., 3 linksto articles), how many of them should have be for a destination URL forcontent having a second content type (e.g. 3 links to videos), etc. Thisselection can be combined with one or both of the publisher profilefeatures described in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

As mentioned briefly above, a publisher can select an option to displayall content extensions associated with certain destination URLs orcertain content types, which is indicated in FIGS. 2A and 2B as “allfound.” For example, Javascript or other code can determine which typesof content extensions are associated with a particular destination URLincluded in the feed, and can add those content extensions alongside thedestination URL content in the feed. FIGS. 2A and 2B only show a fewexamples, and the tables shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B will inevitablyinclude far more entries than shown in these example.

Other exemplary configurable publisher selections include allowing thepublisher to select how many destination URLs (e.g., what percentage ofthe total or which specific ones within a particular layout of displayeddestination URLs) linking to advertisements should be included in thefeed, versus how many destination URLs linking to engagement contentshould be included in the feed; allowing the publisher to select howmany destination URLs (e.g., what percentage of the total or whichspecific ones within a particular layout of displayed destination URLs)linking to internal content on the publisher's own website versus howmany destination URLs linking to external content should be used; andallowing the publisher to select a layout for the content and contentextensions to be displayed in the feed.

In one embodiment, some or all of the selections available to thepublisher for configuring the feed can be initially selected through aconfigurations page that allows the publisher to set its feedpreferences.

In some embodiments, a user can also sign up to have a profile with thefeed producer, and can also set preferences regarding the feed. Some orall of the configurable selections described above in connection withthe publisher profile can also be selected by a user and stored in auser profile. In this case, the feed producer can determine whichpreferences (e.g., user vs. publisher) take precedence over others. Theuser profile can include other information about the user, such as userpage visit history, user interests, demographics, user behavior profile,etc. In addition, as mentioned previously, the user can login whenbrowsing different publisher sites with a single login name used by thefeed producer, so that the user profile can be used across variouspublisher sites to allow for a cross-platform, cross-publisher unifiedfeed that is customized for the user.

The content for the content feed (e.g., located at the destination feedlocation indicated by a destination URL) may be selected by the feedentity server 130 based on analysis of the primary content (in real-timeor in advance), analysis of the content of the various destination feedlocations (in real-time or in advance), matching algorithms thatretrieve relevant content based on analyzed content in the primarycontent, and publisher and user profiles, such as publisher preferences,user behavior and interests, etc. The content extensions for the contentfeed may also be selected by the feed entity server 130, for example,based on the publisher profile and/or a user profile.

In certain embodiments, as can be seen in FIG. 1, destination URLs maybe associated with destination URL content (e.g., a video, news article,etc.), and one or more content extensions, such as comments, reactions,etc. In FIG. 1, destination URL 1 (e.g., linking to destination feedlocation 1) is associated with content 1 and extension 1. Extension 1has a certain format and a certain type. For example, it may be areactions-type content extension, and may display reactions using acertain set of symbols, such as ones that convey “like,” “love,”“funny,” “sad,” and “dislike.” Destination URL 2 (e.g., linking todestination feed location 2) is associated with content 2 and extension2. Extension 2 has a certain format and a certain type. For example, itmay be a comments-type content extension, and may display comments usinga certain format, such as one that only shows top-level comments as adefault. Destination URL 3 (e.g., linking to destination feed location3) is associated with content 3 and extension 3. Extension 3 has acertain format and a certain type. For example, it may be acomments-type content extension, and may display comments using acertain format. The format may be the same as the format of extension 2,or may be different. For example, the format may be one that shows topand second-tier-level comments as a default. Destination URL 4 (e.g.,linking to destination feed location 4) is associated with content 4 andextension 4. Extension 4 has a certain format and a certain type. Forexample, it may be a reactions-type content extension, and may displayreactions using a certain format, which may be the same as or differentfrom the format of extension 1. For example, in one embodiment, theformat may include a different set of symbols from the format ofextension 1, and includes one or more additional symbols (e.g., for“surprise” or other emotions).

Based on the publisher profile, and optionally a user profile as well,certain content extensions will be included along with the feed contentdisplayed with primary content for a web page at a user device. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 1, content 1 and content 2 have been selectedfor the content feed (which selections can be based on various criteria,such as publisher, profile, user profile, primary content anddestination URL content analysis and matching algorithms, etc.). Inaddition, content extension 1 and content extension 3 have been selectedfor display with content 1, and content extension 4 and contentextension 2 have been selected for display with content 2. In someembodiments, the format of the content extensions displayed with thecontent feed is different from the format of the content extensions asthey exist in one or more of the destination feed locations. In thesecases, the content extension content may be reconfigured for displaywith the destination URL content in the content feed.

In some embodiments, the formats of the content extensions associatedwith certain destination URLs are different from the formats of thecontent extensions associated with other destination URLs for the sametype of content extensions, and so the feed entity server re-configurescontent for at least one of the content extensions for display in thecontent feed so that all of the content extensions of the same typedisplayed in the content feed have the same, uniform, format. Thus, atleast some of the content extensions used in the content feed may bereconfigured versions of the content extensions included in theoriginating destination feed locations.

The format here can refer to a display layout, a type of informationbeing displayed, or a manner of organizing data, as examples. In someembodiments, where the same software application may be used for boththe destination URL and content feed content extensions, reformattingmay not occur.

In some embodiments, the content for the content extensions to bedisplayed in the content feed matches the content for the contentextensions (e.g., included with the destination feed location) fromwhich it is derived. However, in some embodiments, for example, wherethe content extension of the destination feed location has a differentformat from the content extension of its associated content feed contentextension, certain content may be different between these two contentextensions. For example, if the destination feed location has a contentextension that includes six reaction symbols, but the content feed isset up for only five reaction symbols, then the information included inthe different content extensions is different.

FIG. 3 depicts an example of a configurable feed including destinationURL links and content extensions, according to certain exampleembodiments. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the configurable feed shows thebottom of a web page at primary URL 302, including a plurality ofdestination URL links 304 a and 304 b, in the form of picturesaccompanied by headlines and optionally a brief summary, and furtherincludes content extensions 306 a, 306 b, and 306 c associated with eachdestination URL link. In the example of FIG. 3, the content extensionsinclude reactions, comments, and sharing.

Based on the above-described embodiments, users can more easily browsethrough the various content extensions in a content feed due to auniformly formatted feed, and at the same time, the users can avoid theneed to select the actual destination URLs in order to discover whatothers are saying or how others feel about the destination URLs. Thiscan improve network performance by reducing unnecessary traffic, and canimprove individual user device performance by using less bandwidth andperforming less processing.

We claim:
 1. A method of retrieving and displaying links to a pluralityof destination feed locations along with content extensions associatedwith those destination feed locations as part of a configurable feeddisplayed within a web page hosted at a host server associated with apublisher, the method comprising: selecting from a plurality of contentextensions having different content extension types, at least a firstcontent extension to be displayed in the web page next to a first linkto a first destination feed location; selecting from the plurality ofcontent extensions, at least a second content extension to be displayedin the web page next to a second link to a second destination feedlocation, the second content extension having a different contentextension type from the first content extension; analyzing the web pagefor content to determine information about the web page; receiving arequest for the web page; and based on the selections, the request, andthe analysis, selecting first and second content extension contentcorresponding respectively to the first and second content extensionsand for display with the web page, wherein the first content extensionis a reconfigured version of a first corresponding content extensionincluded at the first destination feed location, and wherein the secondcontent extension is a reconfigured version of a second correspondingcontent extension included at the second destination feed location; themethod further comprising: additionally selecting from the plurality ofcontent extensions, at least a third content extension to be displayedin the web page next to the first link to the first destination feedlocation, the third content extension having the same content extensiontype as the second content extension; additionally selecting from theplurality of content extensions, at least a fourth content extension tobe displayed in the web page next to the second link to the seconddestination feed location, the fourth content extension having the samecontent extension type as the first content extension; and based on theadditional selections, the request, and the analysis, selecting thirdand fourth content extension content corresponding respectively to thethird and fourth content extensions and for display with the web page,wherein the third content extension is a reconfigured version of a thirdcorresponding content extension included at the first destination feedlocation, and wherein the fourth content extension is a reconfiguredversion of a fourth corresponding content extension included at thesecond destination feed location.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: displaying on the web page (1) publisher content of the webpage itself, and (2) content extension content using the selectedcontent extensions.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein: at least onepiece of the content extension content displayed on the web page isretrieved from a location outside the host server.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein: the selection of the content extension content is madeat least in part by the publisher based on a stored publisher profile.5. The method of claim 4, wherein: the publisher selects betweenadvertising content and user engagement content to appear as the contentextension content.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: storinguser data including user ids for a plurality of users; logging a userinto a third party content feed entity; and selecting content extensiondata for the selected content extensions based at least in part on auser id of a user making a request for the web page.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, further comprising: receiving user input for a logged in userat one of the selected content extensions; and updating data for atleast one of the selected content extensions based on the received userinput.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: selecting contentextension content for the content extensions based at least on ananalysis of the content of the web page.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein: the web page includes javascript code used to obtain theplurality of selected content extensions and the content extensioncontent.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein: the plurality of selectedcontent extensions include at least two selected from the following: acomment extension; a reaction extension; a video extension; and a pollextension.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing a listof content URLs at a server of a third party content feed entity, eachof those content URLs being a location for a content extension content;and retrieving one of the content URLs as one of the destination feedlocations based on the analysis.
 12. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: storing a user profile and publisher profile at a server ofa third party content feed entity, and selecting from the plurality ofcontent extensions based on both the user profile and the publisherprofile.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein: at least two of theselected content extensions are from different entities.
 14. The methodof claim 1, wherein: the first content extension has a different displayformat from the first corresponding content extension included at thefirst destination feed location, and the second content extension has adifferent display format from the second corresponding content extensionincluded at the second destination feed location.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein: the first corresponding content extension included atthe first destination feed location has a different display format fromthe fourth corresponding content extension included at the seconddestination feed location even though they have the same contentextension type; and the first content extension has the same displayformat as the fourth content extension.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein: the second corresponding content extension included at thesecond destination feed location has a different display format from thethird corresponding content extension included at the first destinationfeed location even though they have the same content extension type; andthe second content extension has the same display format as the thirdcontent extension.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein: the displayformat of the first content extension and fourth content extension isdifferent from at least one of the display format of the firstcorresponding content extension and the display format of the fourthcorresponding content extension.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein:the display format of the first content extension and fourth contentextension is different from both the display format of the firstcorresponding content extension and the display format of the fourthcorresponding content extension.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein: thefirst and fourth content extensions are reaction extensions.
 20. Themethod of claim 19, wherein: the second and third content extensions arecomment extensions.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein: selecting thefirst content extension and the second content extension are based on apublisher profile that indicates which content extensions the publisherselects to be displayed for different destination feed locations.
 22. Amethod of retrieving and displaying links to a plurality of destinationfeed locations along with content extensions associated with thosedestination feed locations as part of a configurable feed displayedwithin a web page hosted at a host server associated with a publisher,the method comprising: selecting from a plurality of content extensionshaving different content extension types, at least a first contentextension to be displayed in the web page next to a first link to afirst destination feed location, the first content extension having afirst content extension type; selecting from the plurality of contentextensions, at least a second content extension to be displayed in theweb page next to a second link to a second destination feed location,the second content extension having a second content extension typedifferent from the first content extension type; analyzing the web pagefor content to determine information about the web page; receiving arequest for the web page; and based on the selections, the request, andthe analysis, selecting first and second content extension contentcorresponding respectively to the first and second content extensionsand for display with the web page, wherein the first content extensionincludes first content derived from a first corresponding contentextension included at the first destination feed location, and whereinthe second content extension includes second content derived from asecond corresponding content extension included at the seconddestination feed location, the method further comprising: additionallyselecting from the plurality of content extensions, at least a thirdcontent extension to be displayed in the web page next to the first linkto the first destination feed location, the third content extensionhaving the same content extension type as the second content extension;additionally selecting from the plurality of content extensions, atleast a fourth content extension to be displayed in the web page next tothe second link to the second destination feed location, the fourthcontent extension having the same content extension type as the firstcontent extension; and based on the additional selections, the request,and the analysis, selecting third and fourth content extension contentcorresponding respectively to the third and fourth content extensionsand for display with the web page.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein:the first content extension and first corresponding content extensionare reaction extensions.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein: the secondcontent extension and second corresponding content extension are commentextensions.
 25. The method of claim 22, wherein: the first contentextension has a different format from the first corresponding contentextension.
 26. The method of claim 22, wherein: the first contentextension has the same format as the first corresponding contentextension.
 27. The method of claim 22, wherein: selecting the firstcontent extension and the second content extension are based on apublisher profile that indicates which content extensions the publisherselects to be displayed for different destination feed locations.